Summer definitely arrived over the last few days! It looks like we are now into a summer pattern now with warm temperatures and clear skies for the next couple weeks. This arrival of this hot weather brought some strong Northwest winds and tough fishing this past weekend, but things look like they are going to stabilize nicely this week with calm winds returning. Fishing has been productive on the Gulf Islands side with some nice chinook salmon up to 22 pounds and a few coho now in the mix. Locally, things have been tough over the last week and we have been working hard to hook a good fish or two on our half days charters. We are looking forward to more coho pushing into Vancouver Harbour over the next couple weeks and our West Vancouver fishery starting.

Thrasher Rock, Porlier Pass, Entrance Island and the east side of Gabriola Island have been the most productive areas on our full day trips over the last two weeks. We have had some pretty solid charters and most trips are hooking 5 to 10 good chinook a trip. Most of the chinook salmon are coming right off bottom and hootchies and the new Gibbs Wee Gees are by far the most consistent producers right now. Blue, Chartreuse and Green Spacklebacks have been our best hootchie colours as usual. We should continue to see decent waves of chinook in the coming weeks. In addition to the chinook, we have been getting a few coho and some nice ling cod. On a very interesting note, we know of 4 confirmed halibut caught over the last 2 weeks off Gabriola and Galiano Island’s…..good sign!

In local waters we have been working the South End of Bowen Island for the most part. Seems like the majority of the good fish are coming between Cowan Point and Cape Roger Curtis. We are finding them pretty close to the shoreline in 200 to 400 feet of water. Cowan Point is often a good bet on the flood tide. We are using larger G Force and Silver Horde Spoons between 50 and 130 feet on the downrigger. The G Force Bon Chovy, Trailhead and Outfitter pattern has been good. In Silver Horde the Cop Car, Irish Cream and the Kitchen sink are good producers as usual. As we move into late June and July we will anticipate our first waves of coho pushing into Vancouver Harbour. This is a favourite local fishery as it is only 10 minutes from the dock. We will start scouting things out over the next week. We have seen them show as early as June 15th and as late as late July in the past. We will see what this year brings. It seems that survival has been good as there is quite a few in Georgia Strait.

We are hoping to see a good return of sockeye salmon this summer. This is the big cycle for Fraser River Sockeye and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is forecasting 14 million sockeye to return. The forecasting for sockeye in recent years has not been very good and we will have a better idea of run strength in late July and early August once test fisheries start in the approach areas. We are crossing our fingers!

Summer is here! Give us a call or email if you would like to get out for a charter!